Representation of Ethnic Groups in Chemistry and Physics

9: Conclusions and recommendations
32. Employment choices are not
analysed in this report.
non-white students to aspire to, or to offer guidance and
support, as an end-effect of the attrition of ethnic-minority
groups documented, may in part contribute to non-white
groups’ relative reluctance to study chemistry and physics.
A detailed examination of the occupations of chemistry
and physics leavers from higher education is not possible
because populations are too small for statistically significant
conclusions to be drawn. Similarly, chemists and
physicists from ethnic-minority groups are too scarce in LFS
data to allow any firm conclusions to be drawn about the
occupations of different ethnic groups.
To obtain information about the career paths of chemists
and physicists from different ethnic groups, a longitudinal
study would probably be the best approach. However, there
will not be enough graduates from some ethnic groups for
even this approach to yield statistically significant data.
Some information about the ethnicity of academic staff
in chemistry and physics is given in appendix 9.
Based on the findings in this report, the following recommendations
are made:
● Work should be undertaken to disaggregate the effects
of socioeconomic class and ethnicity in respect of
educational achievement and subject choices.
● A study should be undertaken to examine factors
affecting undergraduate subject choice by ethnic
group, especially concentrating on those studying
A-level combinations that are likely to qualify them as
potential undergraduate chemists and physicists.
● Work should be undertaken to examine different ethnic
groups’ experiences of higher education in chemistry
and physics, to explore in more detail why ethnicminority
groups on average do less well than the
majority white population at university; and why these
groups are also less likely than the white population to
choose postgraduate study in chemistry and physics,
even when qualified to do so.
● Related to the recommendation above, work should be
undertaken to examine what courses of further study
students, especially ethnic minority-groups, do
undertake and the reasons for their choices.
34 R EPRESENTATION OF E THNIC G ROUPS IN C HEMISTRY AND P HYSICS M AY 2006